Last Rank

Chapter 15

Part 4

The Cook and the Thief

- Elly -

Riding to the capital Elly was swept away by excitement. Her head had been swirling for days, but as soon as they left the forests and the first village arose in the distance before them a thrill caught on.

She had meant to travel. She had meant to see the world. She had never thought she would do it riding a horse through winter lands and sleeping with frozen earth for a mattress and the stars for a roof, but nothing ever turned out how one expected it to be.

How similar the houses were to her own little town, and yet so very different. How beautiful the rivers were covered in ice on the edges and the tree branches weighed down with thick snow.

"Are you listening at all?" Nathaniel meant to shake Elly out of her daze.

"Forgive me," Elly said, not eager for a conversation with the man. He was a horrible person and he had been talking non-stop for hours already.

"You are Queen to be, you'd do good to learn at least a little bit about your kingdom."

"I am learning right now, look there is – wait, what?"

"Ah, finally she listens."

"I am not – We are not – it is not like that," Elly stuttered. Heat rushed to her cheeks, remembering in what inappropriate way Jake and her had parted ways.

"Maybe not for you, but he likes you and are you really going to say no to a King?"

"You cannot mean to be serious." In more than one way. Nathaniel had made Elly tag along on this insane voyage, but she hardly truly believed it more than a fool's errand.

Her horse caught on to her feeling of distress and buckled, she pulled the reins tighter, then bowed down to pet its neck to calm it.

"In either case, little maid, you'd do good to shake some of your naivety before reaching the capital. Live is not the same there."

"I think I can handle myself," Elly said. She had been through enough. She had seen all the ups and downs of societies, the nobles and the lowborn, even the church. Now she even saw the nature which had brought forth all of that. She was not to underestimate their goal, that would have been truly naïve, but she trusted herself to manage.

"King Samael the third. What was his greatest accomplishment?" Nathaniel asked, probably in an effort to prove her wrong.

"The peace treaty with Sovania," Elly said. "My family might have been humble people, but not fools."

"How did he become the king?"

"Due to a tragic accident within the royal family." Everyone knew that, even those who couldn't even read. Elly had been too young to fully understand the extend back then, but it had shaken the whole country.

"Tragic indeed." Nathaniel smirked. "But not that accidental. I suggest you ask your beloved for details, I'm sure he'll be delighted to tell you."

Elly grimaced. "It is not like that!" And even if it was, it wouldn't matter because Jake never talked to her about anything either way.

"Anyway," Nathaniel continued in his lecture-tone. "If a village had a rough year and cannot pay tribute, what to do with it?"

Elly took a moment to answer, taken aback. "Send help?"